Bank South Pacific has selected Fulcrum Biometrics to deliver a fingerprint-based know your customer (KYC) banking solution that is expected to be rolled out in early in 2019. Bank South Pacific is the largest regionally owned bank in the South Pacific.

Fulcrum Biometrics’ real-time identity verification system will help protect the bank from financial crimes, reduce risk with KYC due diligence and comply with KYC and anti-money-laundering (AML) legislation. The new system is based on fingerprint identification using a combination of Fulcrum Biometrics FbF Rapid Biometric Enablement Suite and some customized web applications.

“The solution from Fulcrum Biometrics is the best way for us to verify identities while giving our customers an effortless experience to access our services,” explains Paul Thornton, group general manager, retail for Bank South Pacific. “Fulcrum’s solution ensures we prevent ID-theft-driven fraud and meet regulatory requirements and KYC for safe and secure transactions. We needed software and hardware that could integrate with our existing and future systems and we needed a vendor who could walk us step by step through the solution implementation, a pilot program and a full-scale rollout and who offered training and ongoing support at reasonable prices.”

Bank South Pacific customers will enroll into the KYC Biometric System at bank branches where, after providing verifiable identification documents, the customer scans the index and middle fingers simultaneously for both left and right hands. The system automatically enrolls the customer after checking the database for duplicate fingerprints or account identifiers. After registration customer can verify their identity by simply scanning their enrolled fingers.

“Our company thrives on developing trust relationships with our customers and consistently providing affordable, quality biometrics solutions,” comments Ken Nosker, president of Fulcrum Biometrics. “We are excited that Bank South Pacific has selected Fulcrum Biometrics as the vendor of choice for implementing their new KYC biometric solution. Historically, our sales focus has centered around the Americas, the Caribbean and Africa. Being invited into the South Pacific by such a well-known financial institution is a real honor.”

The bank will launch the new KYC biometric system across Papua New Guinea first, then it will begin introducing the system to surrounding islands in the region later this year.